


A New Normal

by runtedfiction



Series: Love in the Time of Corona [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Crossing References, F/M, Quarantine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25987483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runtedfiction/pseuds/runtedfiction
Summary: Katara won’t shut up about Animal Crossing, and Zuko suffers. (But, and he will never admit this to her, it is very cute.)
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Love in the Time of Corona [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028901
Comments: 25
Kudos: 121





	A New Normal

**Author's Note:**

> quarantine fic *airhorns*
> 
> this was originally intended for zutara week day 4: celestial. is that a bit troll? i don't know

A hundred days into quarantine, Katara caves. It’s a quiet Sunday morning, light streaming in through the windows. But an alarm goes off on her phone, harsh metallic rings breaking the morning silence, and she bolts out of bed. 

“Zuko,” she says. He grunts in response, and she frantically taps at her phone to unlock it. “Zuko! _”_

“What.”

“I’m going to do it. I’m actually going to do it. Oh god, I hope this works.”

“Urgh.” 

“Zuko, wake up. I’m going to do it.”

He turns towards her and slides one eye open. Katara is pulling out her credit card and breathing hard and punching in numbers, and this is an awful lot of noise for what feels like 8AM. “What.”

“I’m going to buy a Switch.”

“Oh god,” he says, closing his eyes. “Not this again.”

“Look, it’s actually going to work this time, I’m actually at the checkout page, it’s taking me to order confirmation-- _holy shit, it worked!”_

“Congratulations,” Zuko yawns, syllables thick with sleep. He pats the empty pillow next to him. “Come back to bed.”

* * *

At dinner the next day, Katara shows him the shipping notification. 

“It shipped!” She’s so excited, and he can’t help but smile. “It’ll be here next Friday!”

“What games are you going to get?” Zuko asks, poking at the pickled cucumbers. “And let me know if I made these too spicy again.” 

“Oh, they’re really good, don’t worry. And Animal Crossing,” she says in between bites. “The one that everyone’s been playing.”

He snorts. “You’re going to play it for two weeks max.”

“How could you say that?”

“It’s true.” He shrugs. “Remember that sourdough phase? At least when you’re done with it I can get Breath of the Wild or something.”

“Shut up,” she says, stealing a cucumber slice from his chopsticks. “I’ll play it for a thousand hours. And the sourdough would’ve been better if you didn’t nearly kill the starter!”

“Ok, sure, sure” he says, skeptical. “I’ll order Breath of the Wild tonight.”

She pouts with a “hmph,” and he reaches across the table to grab her cheek.

* * *

Next Friday rolls around, and Katara works from the living room so she can keep her face glued to the window. 

“Slow day, huh,” Zuko asks in between meetings. She makes a face, and he kisses her quickly. “I hope your package gets stolen, and you have to see it.”

He darts away, laughing, before she can jokingly get her hands around his neck. When her package actually does come, he can hear her bolting out of the apartment. And just as quickly, he can hear her run back in again, probably for a meeting or something.

Her voice comes in through the door of their home office. “Yeah, these designs look great! Let me share my screen. People can see this, right? I spun up an Express app for a proof of concept, and I think that…”

She sounds slightly out of breath, and Zuko laughs before realizing he forgot to mute himself in his own meeting. _Shit._

* * *

Later that night, Katara practically buzzes with energy. 

“Holy smokes,” she keeps saying. The game only has a few minutes left to download. (She bought a digital copy, much to his chagrin, but Zuko’s learned that there are some battles he’ll always lose.) “Holy smokes, it’s actually going to happen!”

“Are you excited?” He asks, his elbow digging into her shoulder. “Man, you really shouldn’t sit on the couch all day hunched over like that. It’s bad for you.” 

“I know, I know,” she says. “Oooh, right there, that’s good.”

Then the game is done downloading, and Katara grabs the controller eagerly. “Isla Yue, here I come!”

Zuko raises an eyebrow. “Isla Yue? What happened to Ember Island?” 

“I realized it wouldn’t fit in the character limit,” she says. “But it was a strong second choice-- _oh my god, look, it’s those little tanuki boys!”_

* * *

For the next few weeks, Zuko wakes to find Katara gently tapping at the buttons on her Switch. He learns all about Tom Nook and picking weeds and how Katara wanted peaches as a starting fruit but settled for apples. Her store upgrades, she starts making waterfalls, and she even dresses one of her villagers in outfits that Zuko wears. This is how he learns about Sherb, and about how badly Katara wants Cherry as a villager (“we’d just _vibe_ , you know?”).

She plays in between meetings, during lunch, and before bed. She resists the urge to play at the dining table or during their evening time, and for that, Zuko is grateful. 

“I’m losing you to Tom Nook,” he laments one night while chopping vegetables. Katara is manning the marinated meat on the stove--it’s Korean night tonight, and Zuko’s stomach growls with anticipation--and she laughs. 

“I promise you that you aren’t.” 

“I really am though,” he says. He moves to the sink to clean the knife and she turns around to kiss him on the cheek. 

“You aren’t. Plus,” she adds, “there’s going to be a surprise tonight. I’ll show you, I think you’ll like it!”

Zuko kisses the top of her head and wraps his arms around her waist. “Let me guess--you’re leaving me for Sherb.”

"Very funny, and I wish."

* * *

After dinner, they sometimes watch TV, sometimes workout, sometimes read, sometimes try a random quarantine hobby. Zuko misses the gym, but it’s fun to use Katara for weight training, and it’s nice to save the membership money. It also helps that she turns up the ogling by a thousand percent when he pulls out the free weights. 

“You have no shame,” he says, breathless, after she jokingly pats his butt for the millionth time. 

“Keep up the work, champ.” 

“Do I get any rewards?”

“Yup, you get to play Animal Crossing with me tonight—there’s a meteor shower in Isla Yue.”

Zuko jokingly groans, and she smacks him once more for good measure. 

* * *

Katara’s island is gorgeous at night, lit with paper lanterns and star fragments. She lets him walk around and catch a few fish; it’s the one part of the game that he’ll willingly play.

“Goddammit,” he mutters. “So many sea bass tonight, haven’t seen those before.”

She laughs, and continues to watch him make the worst catches he’s made in a while, before she grabs at his arm. “Wait, wait, Zuko, look up, it’s a shooting star! Press A, press A!”

He looks up and presses A. Her character does an adorable little bow. “Did I wish on it?”

“Yup,” she says. “Look how _cute_ , oh my _god_.” She places her head on his shoulder. “You can stay like this for a few minutes; they’ll come in groups.”

“Ok.” 

And they pass a few minutes like this, her head on his shoulder, both of them admiring Isla Yue’s sky. They’re in the middle of Katara’s flower field, and the lilies sway in the wind. It’s a full moon tonight.

“When,” Katara begins, hesitantly. “When do you think we’ll be able to see things like this again?” 

“You mean when life will be normal again?”

She nods. It was all they talked about in the beginning of quarantine, this prediction of when “normal life” would return, but now that daily life has settled into this rhythm--working from home together, cooking together, all the small things that go into sharing your life with someone else--he hadn’t really thought about it as of late.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Post vaccine, which could be next spring, next summer, next winter--it’s hard to say.” 

“I know,” she says, voice small. He grabs her hand with his free one, the other intermittently pressing A to wish on stars. “And I know that we’re more than lucky to have work and be happy and healthy, but sometimes I can’t help but think that it’s unfair and it’d be great if life were like Animal Crossing.” 

“I know,” he says. He squeezes her hand and kisses the top of her head. “Life’s unfair, but I’m lucky to have you.” 

“I love you.” 

“Love you.”

They play together for a bit more before Katara falls asleep in his lap, and he tucks her into bed. Days like this bleed together, but most of the time he doesn’t mind. Life is boring and the world is on fire, but she’s the best partner he could have in these times. 

Zuko doesn’t tell her this, but he ends up fishing and wishing on stars for the rest of the night. And he even begins thinking of personal wishes to accompany the stars. He remembers that Katara once told him that the game feels like therapy. She’s definitely right.

_I want everything to be ok by next summer._

_I want people to be recognized for their full humanity._

_I want to be happy with Katara forever._


End file.
